Public education and awareness are critical to addressing issues related to vascular health and disease. However, to date, little work has been done at the community level with regard to outreach to at-risk populations and to address these knowledge gaps. We describe an intervention to educate high-school students regarding vascular disease with aims to improve community knowledge and to also promote further inquiry into the field of vascular surgery. An educational initiative was commenced in three public high schools. A team of vascular surgeons, vascular residents/fellows, medical students, and vascular lab technicians provided in-class education sessions for the length of a class period (approximately 50 minutes). During each session, there was an interactive presentation on risk factors, presentation, and treatment of peripheral arterial disease, stroke, and abdominal aortic aneurysms. This was followed by hands-on stations where students were introduced to endovascular tools and 3D-printed aortic models, as well as a station where students performed ultrasound examinations of their own carotid arteries and abdominal aortas, and ankle brachial indexes were performed. Before and after each session, substantive quizzes regarding vascular disease were administered, and results of the quizzes were tracked. A total of 155 students completed pre-educational session quizzes, and 132 students completed postsession quizzes (Table). Five questions were included on the pre- and postsession quizzes: peripheral arterial disease risk factors (question 1), smoking-related risks (question 2), abdominal aortic aneurysm symptoms (question 3), stroke symptoms (question 4), and smoking pathophysiology (question 5). An improvement was seen in the aggregate number of correct responses for each question (Table). There was also an increase in the total number of students who scored four correct: 7 (4.5%) presession to 20 (15.2%) postsession, and those who scored five correct: 0 (0%) presession to 11 (8.3%) postsession. Targeted programs aimed at high-school students by vascular surgeons, trainees, and staff can provide a sustainable model for public education and awareness of vascular disease that increases knowledge and may also spur interest in vascular surgery. Further work is needed to determine if these interventions can increase knowledge not only in students in the community at large but also in populations at risk surrounding these schools.TablePre- and posteducational session quiz resultsPresession correct responses, No. (%)Postsession correct responses, No. (%)Question 1: risk for developing PAD106 (68.4)101 (76.5)Question2: smoking-related risks59 (38.1)59 (44.7)Question3: most common AAA symptom12 (7.7)45 (34.1)Question 4: signs of stroke33 (21.3)44 (33.3)Question 5: smoking pathophysiology75 (48.4)75 (56.8)Total N = 155Total N = 132Total no. of correct responses 018 (11.6)9 (6.8) 144 (28.4)31 (23.5) 248 (31.0)32 (24.2) 338 (24.5)29 (22.0) 47 (4.5)20 (15.2) 50 (0)11 (8.3)AAA, Abdominal aortic aneurysm; PAD, peripheral arterial disease. Open table in a new tab
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